‘My God, you’re a woman!’ St. Paul’s head of cardiology had to fight for respect

Retired St. Paul's Hospital physician Dr. Doris Kavanagh-Gray at her Vancouver, B.C. home Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Kavanagh-Gray was hired as only the second female doctor at St. Paul's in 1959 and continued her career there in the cardiology department until retiring in 1997.Jason Payne
/ PNG

An undated photo from the book St. Paul's Hospital: A Proud Tradition of Compassionate Care of Dr. Doris Kavanagh-Gray (centre) with a patient at St. Paul's. Also in the photo are X-ray technician Virginia Morozoff (in white), RN Agnes McCarthy and Gerry Galazyk of biomedical engineering.Submitted photo
/ St. Paul's

Dr. Doris Kavanagh-Gray was just a girl of 17 in the early 1940s when she decided to become a doctor.

Straight out of high school, she had no university degree, but she had smarts and guts and applied to medical schools across the country. Not surprisingly, she was rejected by all, save the University of Ottawa, where she was granted an interview. But they turned her down, too.

“I was very naive at the time,” the doctor, now 81 and living in Vancouver, told The Province.

“They were not too keen on me, first of all because I was female and there weren’t very many in medicine at the time, and second because I hadn’t been to university. They gave me a really pessimistic outlook. So I went back to the dean and pleaded my case and they said all right.”

She became one of just two women in her class; one of five in the entire medical school.

She graduated in 1948 and went on to become St. Paul’s first female cardiologist. When she joined in 1959, she became only the second female doctor hired by the hospital.

Her early determination and refusal to take no for an answer helped propel her to the top of her field at a time when women weren’t treated as equals — in or out of the hospital.

After working at the Ford Clinic in Detroit, she was hired at St. Paul’s along with her husband, Dr. John Gray, a general surgeon from Vancouver she’d met in medical school. She was tasked with setting up St. Paul’s cardiac catheterization unit, where she diagnosed heart conditions.

She soon pushed the sisters to allow her to perform heart catheterization procedures on patients, as she had in the U.S., and they eventually relented, just so long as she first practised on a dog. The canine catheterization was a success, and so was Dr. Kavanagh-Gray. She soon joined the team that performed St. Paul’s first open-heart surgery in 1960.

“I was able to develop that division and never looked back,” she said. “It was so needed in Vancouver. There was a lot of pent-up patient load, especially with children.”

But even with all her skill, the doctor had to fight for respect. Some patients upon meeting her were known to exclaim, “My God, you’re a woman!” She usually won them over with her expertise. She was soon appointed head of cardiology – after lobbying the hospital director, of course. She served in that role for 30 years. Under her, the unit grew from one cardiologist to 11 by the time she retired in 1997.

Still, sexist attitudes persisted among the mostly male physicians. For years, Dr. Kavanagh-Gray lobbied the board to allow women to be allowed to join the men’s annual dinner, but she was rebuffed. Eventually they offered her a compromise: the women could have their own dinner.

It would prove a memorable night. A dozen women descended on a fine restaurant called the William Tell in rented mink coats and quaffed countless Pink Ladies while they dined and talked. They left for the opera, then returned to more Pink Ladies, Baked Alaskas and carousing past the restaurant’s closing time. When the bill came, they blanched, and so did hospital administration.

From then on, the women were granted a seat at the men’s table – where someone could at least oversee the pouring of Pink Ladies.

“It still goes on with the women and men together and the world didn’t end,” she joked.

“It’s been a fascinating field. There are always new developments. It’s always changing and advancing ... It seemed like every week someone invented another way to repair a defect . . . or new medications came on board.”

The hospital atmosphere was equally inspiring.

“I always thought St. Paul’s had something special to offer. Nobody was ever turned away and the doctors were very supportive. It was a great place to work,” she said.

Most rewarding of all were her interactions with patients.

The cardiologist recalled saving the life of a newborn who was the colour of an eggplant due to poor circulation. She diagnosed the infant with a blocked pulmonary valve and quick surgery restored her.

“She became pink as a rose. It was just very touching,” she recalled.

Years later, in 1999, a woman came up to her at a lecture with her own daughter and mother in tow. It was the same baby, grown and healthy with a child of her own.

“It was my little eggplant baby. I’m tearing up even now, thinking about it. It was a most touching moment to see these three generations of women.”

After she retired, the doctor spent five years as a spokeswoman for the B.C. Heart and Stroke Foundation, educating women about heart disease. Recently, she wrote a novel and took up competitive ballroom dancing.

And her own family is still active in health care: one of her daughters is a gynecologist, her son-in-law an emergency room physician and, fittingly, her granddaughter recently entered medical school. Three generations of women, all making a difference in medicine.

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